Living My Faith Out Loud

It’s so amazing to me that God has brought such an incredibly godly man into my life. I was content being single and if that was going to be my lot in life, I would do it well. Deep down inside though, there was a deep longing. I heard so many times over and over that when I wasn’t looking, it would happen. Well, it happened. I have wanted to cherish my relationship with him and not blog about it but I also want to give God the glory for making it happen.  It’s a beautiful love story and only the creator of love could orchestrate it. Just when I thought life was so good and I was falling more in love with Jesus every day, Ken walked into my life.  He is the sweetest, most tender, gentle, kind man I know and I can’t believe he chose me.  He is also an incredible hunk of a man! He loves me for who I am, with my goofy sense of humor and all and accepts me just as I am. I can be real with him and I don’t have to hide the parts of me that I kept hidden for so long. He challenges me to be the woman God created me to be and I want to know Christ more deeply because of him. We pray together, laugh together, dream together and worship our Lord together. I am so glad I waited for him and didn’t settle for less than God’s best for me because I know that he is truly the man God created for me. I am so glad that I have spent the last several years getting to know Christ so intimately and that my relationship with Him is the foundation of my life.  I pray that as Ken and I fall more deeply in love with each other, we would also fall more in love with Jesus too.

I wanted to continue with more from my previous post from the booklet, A Biblical Portrait of Womanhood. This little booklet has really helped me to change the way I think, feel and act and I hope it does the same for you. It may seem difficult to live out biblical womanhood when the world cries out about women being equal with men but it’s not. God created male and female and He made us very unique and gave us very different roles. I love being a woman and I love my man being a man. There is no confusion about who does what, how we should act, or what God has called us to do.  Because we know our God-given roles, we are both secure and able to focus on more important things. Before I digress and start talking about how wonderful he is, let me get back on track!

So how does a woman of God conduct herself?

Listen to what it says in Ruth 3:11 (KJV), “All the city…doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.”  and in the NIV, it says, “all my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.” Wow! I want to have that kind of reputation! Here are some great questions the author asks:

• Do I have a reputation for being a woman of moral virtue and godly character?
• Do I keep myself pure from all influences that could defile my heart, thoughts or actions?

1 Timothy 2:11, “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.” I used to read this and think this could never be me because quiet is not a word used to describe me but I realized something one morning while I was meditating on this verse. Quietness is not necessarily about not talking or being quiet, it’s about that incredibly peaceful feeling that only the Lord can provide. It’s a quietness of soul. Here’s a few questions:

• Do I receive instruction with a meek, obedient spirit?
• Do I have a teachable spirit?

Proverbs 31:26, “She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue.”  Our tongues are so powerful and I could go on and on but will save that post for another day. Here are some questions:

• Do I bless my family, friends and acquaintances by speaking words that are kind and wise?
• Do I study and meditate on the Word of God so that I can know how to speak wise words?
• Am I able to point people to specific Scriptures that apply to their lives and needs?

I hope these posts are a blessing to you. They are to me because I need to know my role as a biblical woman. I did not grow up in a Christian home nor did I see what being a woman of God looked like and I so desperately want to be what God created me to be. I want to be blessed and be a blessing.

Several weeks ago I ordered a small booklet that Nancy Leigh DeMoss wrote. It’s called Biblical Portrait of Womanhood. It is a really small book but one of the most challenging to read as a woman. Challenging in a good way of course because we, as women, should always seek to want to be who God created us to be.

It basically tells us why we were created, then the remainder of the book asks lots of questions. These are great questions to ask ourselves and if you really want to know how you’re doing, ask your friends, boyfriend or husband how you are doing! One section asks, What makes a woman beautiful, and I am going to post a few of the questions and verses here because it is so counter cultural and the world is telling us something completely opposite. I am going to be posting more of it in the days to come.

1 Peter 3:4, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment…Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” 

• Do others see in me an inner radiance and beauty that are the result of a grateful, yielded, trusting spirit?
• Do I focus more time and effort on cultivating inner spiritual beauty that I do on matters of external beauty?

1 Peter 3:5, “This is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.”

• Am I more concerned about being holy than about being happy?
• Am I placing my hope and trust in God rather than in people?

Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

• Am I more concerned about cultivating my relationship with the Lord than about being fashionable, stylish or physically attractive?
• Do I live in the constant, conscious recognition of the presense of God?
• Do I desire to please God more than I desire the approval of others?

This is just a small snippet of the booklet but aren’t those great questions? I want to be the woman God created me to be and I want to embrace my role as a woman. (So there!)

I couldn’t resist putting this picture on here because some days I wish I had this stuck on my windshield!

I mean, if you are in the fast lane, you need to go fast! Get out of the way if you can’t hang! You’re acting all nervous anyway, I can see you up there white knuckling the steering wheel wishing I wasn’t coming up behind you! Isn’t it easier to just move over instead of holding your ground and saying, “well, I am going the speed limit and if that idiot doesn’t like it, he (or in my case, she) can just go around me!”  Didn’t you read the driving handbook? It says, move over when you see Rachel’s car coming. It is quite simple really. Turn on right turn signal. Look over right shoulder. If there is no oncoming car, get out of my way and get in the left lane. Once you see a silver blur go by, you may get back in the fast lane and start the whole process all over again.

One of my favorite portions of Scripture is Ezekiel 36:25-36. The Lord is talking to the Israelites but it is such a great word for all of us. The first few verses say, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” 

This is exactly what the Lord did for me. On the day I trusted Christ with my heart, I became a new creation in Christ, the old Rachel was gone in the blink of an eye and a new Rachel was here in her stead. Although He gave me a new heart and His Spirit was in me, it took a few years for me to really comprehend the fact that He made me clean. No longer was I a leper; untouchable, unlovable with my face turned away from God. I have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The very Spirit of God now lives in me and is guiding me into truth. The second part of this Scripture hit me one day as I read verses 33-36 and I realized that this is exactly what God is doing in my life now.

It says, “On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, ‘This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.”

I feel like my past was like this land, lying desolate and in ruins. He has breathed His very own breath into me and and is replanting what was barren and desolate. It’s so incredible to think that the God of the universe and Savior of the world not only ransoms and redeems us, He also restores us.  I never would have imagined 7 years ago where I would be today. Alive and living for Christ. Pure and righteous because of what Jesus did on the cross for me. Not because of anything I have done or could possibly ever do but because He loves me so very much. At times I wonder why He chose me and am so grateful He did.